In a system with limited resources and spectrum such as a wireless cellular network, the system determines how to allocate resources to users. In typical voice networks such as 2G systems, users are served on a first come first served basis, as long as the user is in an area that has a minimum signal quality. Future networks are intended to provide more data services over cellular networks, such as 3G systems, so a different criterion other than a minimum signal quality is typically employed. Since data is more tolerable to delays than voice, typical data networks attempt to serve a user when a higher channel quality is present so as to minimize usage of common wireless resources such as spectrum in order to achieve a maximum throughput of the base station. However, systems that allocate resources on the basis of channel quality alone do not accommodate the issue of what rate each user desires.